It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.
– W.H. Auden
As someone who makes their living writing about writing and publishing, I can attest to how truthful Auden’s quote is. It is hard making a living as a writer, but it is even harder making a living as a poet or an author of short fiction.
Many literary journals do not pay their writers. This is because most are projects of passion, are not for profit, or are run by an individual or a small group of people who love to write and read, but do not necessarily have a lot of money. Many of these journals are run by schools with underfunded English departments. I would say that over 75% of literary journals do not pay their writers. I have no problem with that, but it is nice to be paid occasionally.
The situation is especially frustrating because the journals that do pay, often charge writers to submit. We do not cover journals that charge at all, and you can learn more about that here.
For your reading pleasure, here are literary journals that do pay. Some pay well and others pay a token amount
Not all are open to submissions right now, but many are. More markets are temporarily closed to submissions on this list then most of our lists because the limited scope of this list.
It is very important to read and follow their detailed submission guidelines on their website.
Bourbon Penn
They are “seeking highly imaginative stories with a healthy dose of the odd”. They pay 4 cents per word.
The Wild Umbrella
This online journal publishes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. They pay €10 per poem and €25 per story or essay, and €50 for accepted cover art submissions.
Reckoning
This paying market focuses on creative work about environmental justice. They say they are always “seeking work from Indigenous writers and artists, racialized writers and artists, queer, trans and/or disabled writers and artists, and anyone, anywhere in the world, who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world.”
Fahmidan Journal
This respected literary journal pays $25 per piece.
Berkeley Fiction Review
They only publish one journal full of short fiction annually. They pay $25 per piece. They are closed to submissions at this time.
Astrolabe
This beautiful online journal offers a $50 honorarium to contributors. They only are opened to a limited number of submissions every reading period and they only accept submissions of fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as photography and art.
WALLSTRAIT
They focus on publishing “hard-to-define” fiction. They pay $25 per story.
Sally Port Magazine
They are focused on publishing fantasy stories, including fantasy for younger readers. They are a paying market.
Body Shots
This journal of short fiction stresses that they are only open to previously unpublished work. They believe ““Genre is a construct; genre does not exist.” They pay $150 for works of 5000+ words, $75 for works of 2500 to 5000 words, and $35 for works of 2500 words or less.
Rustica
They are a print and online literary and arts journal that focuses on celebrating the art of being outside. They accept visual art and writing from any genre, including poetry, essays, literary criticism, fiction, dramatic writing, and translation. They pay $50 per contributor, and they also send one contributor copy.
Phano
They publish fiction and essays, and they have different preferences for each genre. If you have not heard from them in 60 days, assume rejection. They pay 2 cents per word.
Pictura
They publish poetry, prose, and artwork and pay $5 per contributor.
Dalhousie Review
This respected Canadian journal based out of Dalhousie University is open to international submissions. They are a challenging market to be published by, and pay a token amount.
Broken Antler
They publish horror and weird fiction, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy. Work selected for their print issues receive $20 + a contributor copy. They pay $10 per piece for work published online.
Brilliant Flash Fiction
This quarterly flash fiction publication pays $20 via PayPal.
The Cincinnati Review
They publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and are an established paying market. They are open to submissions in September, December, and May – they have a cap during open submission periods, and submissions close when this cap is reached.
Write or Die Mag
They have published interesting pieces about writing and publishing, as well as more general essays, but are now getting into fiction, and are paying approximately $50 per short story.
Centaur Lit
They publish experimental writing that defies genre definition. They pay $20 per piece.
CORNICE
They publish poetry and fiction that aligns with the editors preferences. They make these preferences clear on their website so read their guidelines carefully. They pay $40.
The Bombay Literary Magazine
This respected literary journal pays an honorarium of ₹5,000 (approx. $61 or €51) for a contribution.
Big Wing Review
This nature-focused magazine pays $5-10 for pieces.
Salamander
Salamander, an established and long running print journal, pays contributors for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and flash. Although they do not disclose how much.
Clarkesworld
Clarkesworld Magazine is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes short stories, interviews, articles and audio fiction on a monthly basis. They pay very well.
The Fiddlehead
An established and respected Canadian print journal. They have two open reading periods, one is for Canadians only and runs from the 1st of January through the 31st of March. The other is open to all submissions and runs from September 15th through the 30th of November. They pay CAD65 per published page plus two contributor copies.
Nashville Review
This respected paying market is open to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation submissions in August and January. They accept art and comics year-round.
The Malahat Review
The Malahat Review is an established and respected print magazine based out of Canada. They mostly publish work by Canadian writers but are open to submissions from international writers also. Their detailed schedule is on their website. They purchase first world serial rights and, upon acceptance, pay CAD70 per published page, plus a one-year subscription.
Only Poems
A new publication that focuses on publishing one poet per week as well as featuring one poet per month. They have published some very established writers, including Bob Hickok and Denise Duhamel. They pay $77 per contributor (not per poem) for Poet of the Week feature, and less for other features. They are open to fee-free submissions during the first seven days of every month for their Poem of the Month feature.
Escape Artists (Escape Pod, PseudoPod, Cast of Wonders, PodCastle, CatsCast)
A publishing group that publishes all of its stories in audio and text formats. They are known for their genre podcasts and have a large following. Each publication has a separate focus. For example Cast of Wonders focuses on a young adult audience whereas Escape Pod only publishes sci-fi. CatsCast only publishes speculative fiction about cats. The various publications pay $100 for full-length reprints and more for original works.
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
This paying and competitive magazine publishes short stories and novellas in the mystery genre.
Eye to the Telescope
Eye to the Telescope is an established online journal that focuses on publishing speculative poetry. They pay authors 4 cents per word, rounded up to the nearest dollar. They pay a minimum of $4 per poem, and a maximum of $25. They usually have themed issues.
Aniko Press
A thoughtfully designed print and digital magazine that also runs a regular (payment free) flash fiction contest. They pay for fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and each themed issue contains 10 to 15 pieces.
THEMA
A literary journal that pays $25 for short stories and $10 for flash fiction and poetry. They usually have themed submission calls, follow their guidelines carefully. They only accept postal submissions from US-based writers, and emailed submissions from writers elsewhere.
The Threepenny Review
This established literary journal publishes poetry and prose and they pay very well.
Poetry Magazine
Poetry Magazine was founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912. The magazine established a reputation early on by publishing many important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and many others. They pay a minimum of $400 per poem.
Short Story Magazine
Short Story is an online magazine based on Substack that hopes to provide amazing short stories to subscribers, and to pay authors well. They only publish one story a month, but the published author receives $100 plus 50% of the subscription revenue. Depending on the number of subscribers, this could provide excellent payment. According to the editor: “The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story, and I sincerely hope to go way past that.” However it is clear that the current revenue is considerably less than that. They post previous stats, including payouts, here.
AGNI
This is a respected and established journal. They are published by Boston University. They are open to submissions from September 1st through May 31st. They charge for electronic submissions, but you submit via post for free.
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine is one of the better-paying markets there is out there, for science fiction content. They predominantly favor character-oriented short stories and poetry.
CŌNFINGŌ MAGAZINE
CŌNFINGŌ publishes new short fiction, poetry and art from around the world. The journal is a beautiful print-only magazine. They pay £30 to all contributors. If you do not hear from them in 90 days, assume your work is rejected.
One Story
One Story publishes 12 short stories a year, at the rate of one per issue. They have a print and e-versions of the story that they publish. Often, the published story is accompanied by an interview with the author of the story. They pay $500 per story and offer 25 contributor copies.
The New Yorker
It would be strange if such a list did not mention The New Yorker, which is legendary for how well it pays its writers, among other things. The New Yorker does not release the exact amount they pay on their website, although they pay very well. It is more a popular magazine than a literary journal, and publication here can greatly help one’s reputation as a writer. Often it leads to book deals and many other publications. Of course, because of this, it is very hard to get a piece accepted by The New Yorker.
The Deadlands
A paying speculative fiction market. They accept reprints. They are mainly looking for works that explore death, dying, grief, loss, Death personified, the afterlife/the underworld, etc. They pay 10 cents per word for short fiction up to 5,000 words, $100 per essay, and $50 per poem.
The Forge
They pay $100 for nonfiction and fiction. Submit early in the month. When they run out of free Submittable submissions they start charging, but the number re-sets every month.
The Paris Review
This is a very respected print journal and they do not disclose the amount they pay, only say that they do. They have limited submission windows via Submittable, and also accept work by post during their submission periods.
Analog
This is a respected science fiction journal that publishes everything from short stories to novellas. They pay well. They also accept serialized novels.
Strange Horizons
They have a very low acceptance rates, pay professional rates, and most importantly, they publish very good stories in the speculative fiction genre. They have submission caps for fiction on all their reading periods. They have an associated market which only publishes translations, called Samovar.
The Ex-Puritan
This renamed Canadian literary journal publishes and pays for poetry and prose.
Blue Marble Review
Blue Marble Review is a quarterly online literary journal that publishes art and creative writing by people between the ages of 13-22. They pay them $30 per piece, or $75 for cover art.
The Other Side of Hope
A new journal dedicated to showcasing writing by authors who are immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. The journal is also edited by immigrants and refugees, and aims to serve the immigrant and refugee community worldwide. They pay authors £100.
The Cafe Irreal
A journal focused on publishing unusual fiction, they pay token amounts. They do not accept simultaneous submissions.
Flash Frog
A paying market for flash fiction.
Menagerie
Menagerie publishes fictions, essays, and poems, and are a paying market.
The Drift
A respected magazine focused on culture and politics, they accept a wide variety of nonfiction, as well as some fiction and poetry. They pay well.
West Branch
This respected print literary journal is open to unsolicited work between August 1st and April 1st. They pay $100 to poets whose work is accepted, and 10 cents/word for prose with a maximum payment of $200.
Riddle Fence
This Newfoundland and Labrador-based journal of arts and culture, published four times yearly, is open to international submissions and pays $50 per published page. They have two open reading periods a year.
Orion’s Belt
This is a paying flash fiction magazine. They publish experimental literary science fiction and fantasy, that is 1,200 words or less.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
